


a city outta clay

by youareiron_andyouarestrong



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Western, Alternate Universe-Cowboys, F/M, Newt finally makes it to Arizona, Tina runs a ranch, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 07:40:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10715139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youareiron_andyouarestrong/pseuds/youareiron_andyouarestrong
Summary: Tina pinched the bridge of her nose, trying not to look at the wide-eyed, guileless face of the young man before her. “Look, mister, I know you’re not from around here–”“It’s just Newt, actually,” said the young man cheerfully. “And I’m from London–”“Yeah, I could tell,” Tina muttered. “Listen, mister, we don’t just talk about the things that live out here in the dust, okay? You never know if they’re listening and they might not like the attention.”“I would never dream of disturbing them,” Newt protested, so earnestly Tina is instantly suspicious. “I just want tostudythem.”





	a city outta clay

Tina pinched the bridge of her nose, trying not to look at the wide-eyed, guileless face of the young man before her. “Look, mister, I know you’re not from around here–”

“It’s just Newt, actually,” said the young man cheerfully. “And I’m from London–”

“Yeah, I could tell,” Tina muttered. “Listen, mister, we don’t just _talk_ about the things that live out here in the dust, okay? You never know if they’re listening and they might not like the attention.” 

“I would never _dream_ of disturbing them,” Newt protested, so earnestly Tina is instantly suspicious. “I just want to _study_  them.”

“They like to be left alone,” Tina said. “Most folks around here do,” she added meaningfully, not that he seems to notice. 

He should look out of place among the tumbleweeds and cactus, with his heavy blue overcoat and _bow tie_ , but strangely, he looks like he _fits_  out here, under the clear, arching blue sky, with his tangle of auburn hair and sturdy boots. There are lines around his eyes like a seasoned ranch hand, squinting into the sun and wind. 

Tina sighed. Well, she couldn’t exactly _leave_ him out here, wizarding kind or not. Queenie would have a fit. “All right,” she said reluctantly. “Listen, you can come back to the homestead with me, okay? Queenie will get you a good meal and you can have a bed for the night. Then tomorrow, I’ll take you where you need to be, _only_  if you promise to leave what you see out there _alone._ Otherwise I can’t be held responsible for what happens to you.”

He _beams_  at her, the desert sun at dawn and Tina is utterly taken aback by it. No one should look that happy at the prospect of meeting a nest full of thunderbirds. “Come on,” she said, perhaps a bit more gruffly than she intends. “Let’s go.” 

He mounted up behind her on her horse Oracle with a certain kind of grace, more so than she would’ve expected from him. “I couldn’t help but notice, Miss Goldstein,” he said as she urged Oracle into into a trot, “that you carry with a rather impressive looking rifle.”

Tina kept her eyes on the horizon. Let him _try_ to judge her. “I run a ranch out here, Mister Scamander,” she said. “And although probably _most_ people wouldn’t notice if I solved all my problems by waving a stick around, I’ve found a well-placed shot works just as well.”  

“Ah,” he said and is quiet for a moment. “Well–I understand, it’s just–I don’t like guns, really. Or weapons of any kind. I find them–abhorrent.”

“You want to know what else is abhorrent?” Tina snapped. “Getting run off my land by that crazy preacher lady Barebone who keeps yelling about how my wearing trousers is a sin, or that my sister and I should be attending their blasted church when we have to get the cattle in on Sunday or the way she treats her kids–” she shut her mouth with a snap.

“Ah,” said Newt again softly. “I see.”

And the trouble was, Tina thought in frustration, he really might. “I don’t mean to be rude,” she said stiffly, remembering the mocking remarks of the young men in town, _prickly Porpentina,_ “It’s justmy sister and I are just trying to do the best we can. Life is hard enough for the two of us out here.” 

“I can pay for room and board,” said Newt, matter-of-factly. “If the Barebone woman tries to give you trouble about me. And I _assure_  you I will do my best to conduct my business here quietly.”

Tina glanced over her shoulder at him and sighed. “The paying for the room would help,” she admitted. “Keep all those old cats from carrying on about you staying with us.” A young, handsome, apparently unattached man staying with the two strange Goldstein sisters? The gossip mill in Warding Hill would have a field day. 

“Don’t mention the thunderbirds, or the dust devils, or the skinwalkers, or whatever else you’re here to study to anyone in town, okay?” Tina said sternly as Oracle trotted on. “Folk might _know_ there’s something hiding out here in the desert, but we sure as hell don’t talk about it,” and she pauses, flushing, because he’s a fancy swell from back East with an accent so crisp you could hear the starch in it, and he probably knows dozens of refined ladies who would _never_ swear in front of gentlemen or carry a gun in their saddle. 

“Are the Muggles _aware_ of the magical creatures who live here?” asked Newt in fascination. He hadn’t seemed to notice her lapse of language.

“There’s knowing and there’s _knowing,”_ said Tina, borrowing a phrase from her father. “The trick is to know enough not to get yourself killed.”

This young man with his wide eyes and his open face seemed exactly like the sort of person to walk straight into a nest of rattlers and never notice, but Tina can _feel_ the power thrumming off of him. It sits in his bones like thunder growling far over the horizon, like in the wake of thunderbirds. 

The desert sang when she found him, she felt it right through the soles of her boots. The only other time Tina has heard that happen was when Queenie was born. It means that something is about to happen.  

**Author's Note:**

> obviously this entire work took a good long look at JKR's Wizarding America and went, "...naaaah."


End file.
